


surviving the restoration committee's house, as attempted by vanitas

by joshriku



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Canon - Tie-in Novel, Developing Friendships, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Post-Canon, Team as Family, you heard about crackships now how about crack found family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29893401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joshriku/pseuds/joshriku
Summary: Vanitas moves in with Cid, Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie. What could possibly go wrong? What family could he possibly gain from them?House Rulesclean up your dishes after you use it(unless you lose a bet and have to do them all)Yuffie, no.plLLEEEASEEEEE allow betting againdon’t talk to squall if he hasn’t had his coffeeremind cid to open the windows if he smokesTifa, please don’t hit the wall casually. You know we can’t replace walls every weekknock before entering anybody’s room!!!!do NOT do nOT under any circumstances drink aerith’s tea !!!!!!Yuffie!! Don’t make it sound so scary!that’s it!! have fun!!
Relationships: Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	surviving the restoration committee's house, as attempted by vanitas

**Author's Note:**

> havent stayed up in ages to finish a fic LOL anyway.. there's a bit in the kh3 novel where vanitas' pov says this time he's more mature than before, he's not a little kid anymore and that he wanted to fulfill his goal because he was curious about what type of person he'd become after joining ventus.  
>  . and then we never got a follow up on that so you know.  
> this fic also follows vanitas' novel story, aka, him feeling pain from the unversed and having a terrible shitty time. i'll leave the refs on the other notes : general content warning for mentions of throwing up and generally vanitas being alluded to having a terrible time

**House Rules**

  1. **clean up your dishes after you use it ~~(unless you lose a bet and have to do them all)~~** Yuffie, no. **plLLEEEASEEEEE allow betting again**
  2. **don’t talk to squall if he hasn’t had his coffee**
  3. **remind cid to open the windows if he smokes**
  4. **Tifa, please don’t hit the wall casually. You know we can’t replace walls every week**
  5. **knock before entering anybody’s room!!!!**
  6. **do NOT do nOT under any circumstances drink aerith’s tea !!!!!!** Yuffie!! Don’t make it sound so scary!
  7. **that’s it!! have fun!!**



Vanitas frowns at the whiteboard in the middle of the kitchen. These rules - perhaps calling them “rules” is a little generous. These _scribbles_ made by children, most likely the ninja kid, are outrageous. He’s not sure he’s going to fit in with _these_ people, but to be fair, he expected something worse. Maybe if he had moved in with Ventus and his friends, he’d be subjected to far more terrible rules. But this seemed… childish, at best.

He’ll take what he can get. He’s not sure if he would have been so comfortable with Aqua and Terra in the same living space as him. It’d require having some conversations with them that he’s not willing to have now, and Ventus… _heh,_ well, Ventus. Who’d thought it’d be his own brother who’d want to cast him away? That’d be him to insist Vanitas is his own person, when they used to have contrasting ideas? Funny how a decade changes people. Even if they didn’t feel that decade.

He’s holding a grudge towards Ventus. He ripped away the choice to merge with him, giving Vanitas a _life_ to lead—what type of life did someone like Vanitas even have to live? Stormed with endless pain, darkness haunting him with every step and every Unversed he made? He’d rather not be reminded of this by living with Ventus. Every day would be a reminder they could’ve merged—that they could’ve been two halves of one whole. But no, Ventus went and got his heart fixed by that kid— _now_ there’s no place for Vanitas to fill.

He’s just an incomplete part, wandering around.

And his wandering has led him here. Radiant Garden. According to Riku, he’d have a nice place to stay here, because all the other options didn’t seem to sit with Vanitas. (No, he doesn’t want to be near Sora at the islands, Roxas looks too much like Ventus to be around him and his friends, so the options are scarce.) He had suggested just wasting away at the Keyblade Graveyard, but Riku had frowned at him, and Vanitas knew better than to mess with Keyblade Masters. Although he really wants to. It’d be fun, at least, more fun than these _stupid rules_ at his new place.

Whatever.

Vanitas is just tired. He’s more mature now, knowing better than to aimlessly start a fight with anybody, but when the ninja kid comes over— _way_ too friendly and definitely shouldnʼt be putting an arm around him—he starts to consider going against his new beliefs.

“You like the rules?” Yuffie grins at him goofily, despite Vanitas not showing her any interest. “I wrote them down myself! Well, except number 4. That was Leon. Point is, I wrote them! Everybody told me, _nooo, Yuffie! We don’t need rules!_ but then we’d get in fights every day. I’m technically a peacemaker!”

“Great,” he comments drily, removing her arm from around him. Yuffie doesn’t seem to be down or anything, she keeps beaming at him—bright and annoying. “Where’s my room?”

“Follow me!”

He’d rather not. He’d rather talk to Scar-Man—he didn’t seem very talkative, and he’d probably be really straightforward with Vanitas. Yuffie is _talkative_ , like she walks around with a dictionary inside her head and chooses all the dumbest words to form sentences.

“Aaaand here it is! Ta-daaa!” she gestures at his room. Itʼs not anything fancy — a bed, a nightstand, a window, a desk, and a mini fridge. Despite saying this, heʼs got to admit it _is_ a lot more than heʼs ever had. The walls are gray and in different shades, much like the rest of his house. “We can take you out later to choose more furniture for your room, but, yanno. Here’s what you got so far. Hope you like it!”

“It’s cool,” Vanitas says, walking inside. He moves to the bed and sits down on it—soft. Warm.

Mm. It’s his first time on a bed, isn’t it? Vanitas remembers the cold, spiky, and unforgiving ground of the Keyblade Graveyard. An improvement. He flops down immediately, his back hitting the soft yet firm mattress.

“All good?” Yuffie asks from the doorway.

“I’ll say. It’s funny, it makes me miss the spiky ground I used to sleep on.”

Yuffie isn’t weirded out by it, which is pleasant. She just raises her thumb. “Nice! Good to hear! Welcome to the family! Enjoy your stay!”

* * *

“Did he grow on you because he looks like Sora?” Aerith asks him, kindly, as Vanitas has breakfast in front of their TV. Yuffie was exhilarated that someone else shared the same principle of eating while watching something, so now both of them are sitting together eating. Leon doesn’t have it in him to scold them, or to care. “The resemblance is striking.”

Yes, it’s obvious to anyone who sees him. Leon himself had done a double-take the first time Riku had brought him and explained the situation to the committee. But the more he looks at him, the more differences he notices. They go far beyond a color palette change—it’s the mannerisms. Every expression Vanitas makes is one he’s never seen in Sora, every step he takes and every comment he makes—he’s his own person, no doubt about that.

“No,” he replies easily. He has a soft spot for Sora, but it did not influence anything on his opinion about Vanitas. Vanitas is a pain in the ass, and he means that lovingly. “He’s his own special case.”

Leon hears Yuffie say, “Wanna bet I burp louder?”

Vanitas says, “You’re on!”

The following noises are so _gross,_ Leon has to rub his temple. Aerith laughs quietly next to him. He definitely hasn’t had enough coffee to deal with these two at this hour, but suddenly, Vanitas storms back in, hurriedly opening the fridge and getting the milk out.

“What are you doing?” asks Leon, calmly.

Vanitas hurries to grab the box of cereal. He pours the milk and then the cereal, and quickly explains, “I am not letting Yuffie win.”

“That was _her?_ ” Aerith asks, bewildered.

“You bet!” Yuffie exclaims.

“Well, don’t choke,” Leon says.

Vanitas flicks cereal at him. Leon’s eye twitches. “Yeah, sure. See you!”

“I think it’s nice he’s warmed up to Yuffie,” Aerith comments in a polite tone. _Warmed up_ sure is a term for it.

While Yuffie and Sora also got along like siblings would, there was always an unspoken agreement that Sora got the younger brother treatment. Vanitas is pretty much Yuffie’s equal—if Leon is not careful, they both would destroy the house in a prank war, and it costs far too much to repair everything. Maybe he should start implementing more rules.

Vanitas lets out a burp that is probably what dinosaurs sounded like before they went extinct.

“Holy crap,” Leon says, and then, “Are you okay?”

“Perfect,” Vanitas answers, mischievous and grinning wickedly. “Iʼm a winner!”

“Not fair!” Yuffie huffs.

“What, too scared to admit defeat?”

“You _**literally**_ didnʼt admit defeat! Thatʼs why we are here! Iʼm gonna k—”

“Alright, thatʼs enough from both of you,” Leon steps in, because someone has to be the responsible one. Aerith looks ready to encourage them. “Can you guys change out of your pajamas now? We need to get some groceries.”

“Such a lamer,” Vanitas says.

“Yeah, Leon! You party-pooper!”

Leon groans as he runs a hand across his face. He loves them, though. He won’t say that, but he does. Aerith sees through him, anyway, that’s enough shame for him.

But anyway, Vanitas is special in his own ways. If anything, he has a lot of pent-up… energy. Rage, maybe, but mostly energy: every time they patrol, Vanitas unleashes the quickest and flashiest attacks he’s ever seen. He’s a good match to Leon, who calculates his moves, and takes into consideration the weight and range of his gunblade. Vanitas is the perfect balance of _thinking_ and _not thinking at all._

Heartless vanish as quickly as they appear when Vanitas is on patrol, which makes the night pass by considerably faster.

“Youʼre quite good,” Leon says. “How much did you train?”

“Since I was born,” Vanitas answers. He frowns. “Old man didnʼt let me catch a break.”

Hm? “Old man?”

“Xehanort,” he says, casually. He sounds casual, but… the grip on his Keyblade would be enough to shatter it. “Couldnʼt ask any better teacher for darkness, huh?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Leon sees _something_ forming—a Heartless? Quickly turning around, he sees itʼs a small blue creature with red eyes. Itʼs gone within the next second thanks to Vanitas.

“Iʼve never seen anything like that before,” Leon comments, concerned. “A new type of Heartless?”

“They are called Unversed,” Vanitas fills him in, looking at the spot where the thing used to be. “They are a manifestation of negative emotions.”

“Why did they show up now?”

“I suppose the old man put me in a bad mood,” he laughs with no humor. “They come from me.”

“...Are you okay?” he asks, because. Well. Thatʼs got to hurt, right? “Does it just come back to you?” he guesses.

“Right back to me. Itʼs an endless cycle, almost,” he explains. He starts walking—restless again, hm? Leon continues to keep up. “But itʼs not as bad as it used to be. Why, does it freak you out?”

“No, just concerns me.”

“Concern you?” Vanitas laughs. “Youʼre funny. I like you.”

This kid really had the strangest timing to show appreciation. Leon suppresses a sigh _and_ a chuckle. “So youʼre okay?”

“Damn, youʼre like a mother hen. Do I _look_ not okay to you?”

Vanitas is grinning widely, almost challenging him. That already speaks for itself. But Vanitas would probably deny it if he said, so Leon shakes his head. “You look fine. Letʼs go back to our house, I think we are done for the night.”

“Already? I was just starting to have fun!”

* * *

“Health check-up day?” Vanitas grumbles. “What _is_ that?”

“Iʼm a healer!” Aerith explains, enthusiastic. She sits Vanitas down as she starts taking out her little suitcase. “Itʼs my responsibility to make sure everyone in our house is in peachy conditions. You are one of us now, so! It is time for _your_ check-up.”

This is a lie, mostly. Aerith is a master of lies—their check-up day is in a few weeks. But Leon had mentioned something vaguely worrying when he returned from patrolling: Unversed, Vanitas and emotions, he didnʼt understand it fully but suggested a check-up. Singling him out would have scared him or made him mad, so, new date for health check-up.

“Look, Yuffie grew a whole centimeter. She wonʼt let it live for the rest of the month. Gets to her head too quickly!”

“How tall is she?”

“Well, she used to be 160cm. Now sheʼs 161 and thinks sheʼs on top of the world.”

Vanitas laughs darkly. “Ha! I want to know mine, too.”

To her, Yuffie and Vanitas felt like raising a cat and a dog together. Hilarious, yet sort of cute. Her brain offers her the image of Yuffie and Vanitas having a water-balloon fight and flooding the basement. Not _that_ cute.

Aerith guides Vanitas to the stadiometer. “Stand up straight, okay?”

Vanitas does so. Heʼs jittery—probably dying to know just how much taller than Yuffie he is. Thatʼs hilarious.

“Well, look at you! A whole four centimeters taller than Yuffie.”

A sort of evil grin spreads through his face. “Excellent.”

“Watch out, if you don't eat your vegetables she might outgrow you!” she jokes, laughing shortly after. Vanitas turns to look at her, puzzled.

“Is that true?”

“What, eating veggies to grow?” Did he… not know that? Oh, dear. “Yes, they do help growing! Drinking milk is also key, which you do, given how much cereal you eat. Youʼre on the right path. Speaking of, letʼs get you weighed now, shall we?”

Heʼs surprisingly cooperative. She doesnʼt know why, but she had a feeling Vanitas would be rowdy and messy—much like Yuffie the first few times they started this. Maybe she was being too judgemental. Vanitas has a strong temper and personality, but to be fair… despite his complaints and his "not-caring-for-authority" attitude, she has yet to see him actively rebel against them.

Vanitas steps on the scale and Aerith looks down, taking note.

Gosh. How is he so light? Has he never eaten anything in his life? He looks normal, but the numbers don't really lie. She keeps her worries to herself, as Vanitas looks up to her, searching for an answer. Oh, right. She did compliment him in his height, didnʼt she?

“Well, Yuffieʼs got you beat on this one,” Aerith marks as she writes down the number. “Vanitas, how old are you?”

His face twists in anger. “Does it matter?”

“Yes!” she replies cheerily. “We use ages to determine what is average and what isn’t. Like, for example, how tall is a sixteen-year-old boy averagely? What changes do they go through? How much do they weigh? All of that.”

“I don’t know how old I am,” Vanitas snaps back.

Ohh, damn. That’s complicated.

“For the sake of this, I’ll say you’re sixteen, like Yuffie,” Aerith jots it down. He needs a more balanced diet as soon as possible. He could learn from her, for sure.

“Is there something wrong with my weight?”

“Not quite,” she says. “But you do need a bit more of it. Say, how about we set a goal?”

“A goal?” he tilts his head, listening. “Sure.”

“Let’s keep gaining weight—at least until you weigh sixty kilos,” Aerith grins. “Sounds good? You can’t have Yuffie beat you like that.”

Vanitas nods. “Sounds good to me. Is there anything else I should do now?”

“Yep, sit down. I’ll listen to your heartbeat and do some general check-ups going from here,” she takes out her kit from down the table. Vanitas eyes her suspiciously. She takes out her stethoscope, and now Vanitas _is_ backing off a little.

“What _is_ that?”

“To listen to your heartbeat!”

Vanitas laughs. “Good luck finding a heart inside me.”

That wasn’t ominous at all! Aerith doesn’t let this confuse her, still determined to get a good look at him. She takes another instrument out of her kit; her sphygmometer. Vanitas keeps looking freaked out as she starts putting it on his arm.

“This will hurt for a second, and then you’ll be fine,” Aerith warns him. The first time she took Yuffie’s, she complained endlessly about how much it hurt her arm.

Vanitas reluctantly lends her his arm as she asks for it, and there’s not a single change in his expression. Not a single wince. Is his pain tolerance high, or is Yuffie really dramatic? Even Leon winced every now and then. The numbers on her monitor finally stabilize and— _131?_

His heartbeat is quite high, too. Aerith looks up again. There can only be so many causes for high blood pressure, so she should start discarding reasons.

“Vanitas, are you in pain?” she offers the most reasonable solution for now.

“Right now?”

“Yes, right now.”

“I’m always in pain,” Vanitas says. “It used to be worse, but now it’s normal.”

 _Normal…?_ Aerith jots this down. “How would you describe _worse?_ ”

“I got nauseous a lot. Had many migraines and threw up often.”

Well, that explains his weight.

“I know you’ll ask why this happens to me. Surely Leon told you about the Unversed. Negative emotions feed them, I crush them, it hurts me to crush them. It’s non-stop. Can’t do anything about it—trust me, I tried.”

“...Have you tried painkillers yet?” Aerith asks.

Vanitas tilts his head. “Painkillers?”

“Yes, you know. Medicine.”

“Healing spells haven’t done anything to me.”

“No, I don’t mean that. I mean actual painkillers. Maybe physical therapy? Ever tried that?”

“...No.”

“Guess you’re in luck today!” Aerith claps her hands. “Come on, lie down here and I’ll take care of you. I promise you’ll feel better.”

Vanitas shakes his head. “I don’t trust you.”

“I won’t hurt you,” she promises. “I’m just trying to help you. As a friend. Okay?”

He sighs. Then he nods, and Aerith counts it as a win.

She channels a bit of healing energy as she goes over his pressure points, loosening them up, slowly relaxing his body. A few hisses here and there, but he’s almost as relaxed as a cat. It’s funny.

Twenty minutes later, Aerith says, “Hey, we’re done.”

No response.

“Vanitas?”

Oh, gosh. He’s sound asleep on the table. Aerith laughs to herself. She tries to not worry too much—when was the last time he slept _this_ peacefully?—and instead takes a picture of him. For blackmailing, sure, but he’s also cute.

She does wake him up, though. “Feeling good?”

Vanitas yawns and stretches. “Better than good.”

He hops off and stretches once more. “Are we done? I’m hungry.”

“You could say thank you, you know.”

Vanitas rolls his eyes. “Do I _have_ to?”

“Yes!”

“Thank you,” he says. “I feel lighter than ever. What’s for lunch?”

* * *

She _toootally_ saw Vanitas standing there at three in the morning.

(It’s her ninja-senses. _Duh._ She’s got this.)

She totally didn’t freak out the second she turned on the light and saw Vanitas drinking orange juice out of the carton.

Or that’s what she likes to say. In reality, she whisper-shouts, “What are you doing?!”

“Drinking orange juice,” Vanitas answers casually. “Why are you awake?”

“Why are _you_ awake?”

Vanitas shrugs, but he looks in a sour mood. She’s known him long enough to pick up on his mood cues, on when he wants to talk and when he wants to joke around. He doesn’t seem up to do any of that right now, simply chugging the juice again. Gross. Doesn’t he know everybody drinks from that?

“Bad dreams?”

“Huh?” Vanitas asks immediately.

“Well, yanno. It’s the only thing I can think of. Wide awake at three in the morning drinking orange juice like it’s keeping you alive? Been there. Done that. Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“Knew you’d say that,” she goes on. She came down to drink water, so she will. “Anyway, I’m just offering company. I can’t go back to sleep once I wake up, so. I’ll be here.”

That’s a lie, she will really go to sleep if Vanitas doesn’t need anybody. But there’s something telling her she should be here. Vanitas frowns at her, so she keeps drinking water and acting casual. He’ll come around if he wants to.

“They’re not really bad dreams,” Vanitas says after a long time. “Just memories.”

“What do you remember?”

“Warmth. Laughter,” he says. “It freezes me. Numbs me.”

Yuffie purses her lips. Man, he’s got it rough, doesn’t he? She doesn’t know much about him, but the little glimpse she gets every now and then makes it seem like he’s just… hasn’t had a fun life. She relates. Her optimism is what has carried her this far. What carried Vanitas until here?

She doesn’t know what to say, or whether Vanitas would appreciate comfort. Maybe not. He’d probably hiss at her or something.

She gives him a thumbs-up instead. “Hey, you’ll be fine. If anything freezes you here it’d be Squall’s punishments!”

“I’d like to see him try.”

“Nah. He’s a softie!” she stifles a yawn. “He’d never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

“Shame. It’d be fun to see what he’d be capable of if he just embraced a bit more of his darkness.”

“He’d probably restrict us more from watching TV while having breakfast.”

Vanitas pauses. “Maybe the stupid little guardians of Light were right. Too much darkness _is_ bad.”

Yuffie laughs, and Vanitas suddenly has to suppress a smile, so maybe her job here is being done. It’s fine. She’ll take a longer nap later.

For now, her ninja techniques will be used to cheer him up. Maybe this time, laughter won’t hurt him.

* * *

Kid’s been avoiding him.

Cid’s aware of it. He doesn’t see him often, only during dinner and lunch. Cid goes to his workshop, goes to Merlin’s house to work, and Vanitas is… busy doing whatever the hell kids do. Hell if he knows. Yuffie was enough for him, and the other little duck boys were special cases—they were freaking _ducks._ But Vanitas? Well, that kid’s a mystery. Rowdy and rebellious but not enough to cause trouble or be a nuisance.

Everyone’s out for the day, so it’s just him and Vanitas for once.

“I’ll be at the workshop,” he says. “Holler if ya need anythin’. I’ll see ya.”

What he doesn’t expect is Vanitas saying, “What do you do in there?”

Cid takes a drag out of his cigarette and turns it off. “Buildin’ ships. Swords. Why, you curious?”

He doesn’t answer, but he still looks curious. He’s really bad at hiding his emotions. Cid’s seen his type before—Cloud, Squall, Aerith, Tifa. All these kids growing up with him have given him enough of a dictionary for teenagers, even if he’s not an expert on them.

“Well, get movin’. I don’t like being slowed down. Got it? See ya downstairs. Bring some tea while you’re at it.”

“In your dreams,” Vanitas mutters, and Cid still catches it. Heh. He’s got an attitude, eh?

Just like he predicted, Vanitas shows up later in the workshop with tea.

“Thanks. See this? We get stuff all the time. Cars, bikes, sometimes ships from your friend Riku—we’re always workin’.”

“Where are the weapons?”

“On the table over there,” Cid says. “We enhance ‘em, we polish ‘em, we fix ‘em. Nothing in this world is truly worthless—not as long as I’m here.”

Vanitas looks up to the current Gummi ship in the middle of the room. It’s falling apart—most of the wing has been destroyed, the cabin is broken, and the paint has definitely seen better days. It’s not lost, though. “You sure? This looks terrible. Broken.”

Cid chuckles, “Yeah, not in my hands. You can save pretty much anything you want, kid, no matter how broken it is. Enough chattin’. Let’s fucking work.”

“Fucking?” Vanitas repeats. He frowns. “What’s that?”

Cid guffaws. “Ask Leon, will ya? And tell me how it goes later.”

“...I don’t trust you.”

“Good. Keep it like that. Less bitchin’, more workin’.”

All in all, Vanitas is a pretty good helper. He intently looks as Cid pieces together everything, the tools he uses, and whenever he’s not looking, he goes to the table and tries to work on one of the swords on there.

Something must be failing, though, because he keeps hearing grunts and complaints.

And then it happens.

Vanitas shouts out a curse and then Cid sees it—five little blue creatures with red eyes forming around his feet. Cid is careful to stop paying attention to the ship he’s fixing and slowly turn to Vanitas. “Kid, what’s that?”

“Nothing,” he snaps. Another blue creature forms. “Ah—stop!”

He summons his Keyblade and slashes one of them, which makes him wince, and Cid decides to act. He grabs Vanitas’ arm to stop him, but Vanitas is stronger, angrily shaking him off.

He tries again. “Are these creatures from you?”

“Yes, now let me kill them—”

“No. Sit the fuck down,” he says, and to his surprise, Vanitas complies. He angrily sits down and the creatures move around him, not attacking anyone. “What are these?”

“Unversed. They’re created from negative emotions. The stupid sword—I wasn’t able to attach the handle to it. Now these things are here.”

Cid takes a look at the sword on the table. “Well, how do you fuckin’ expect to do this without instructions? On your own? You dumbass.”

“Hey, watch it!”

“Can you control these?” he kneels down to observe the Unversed. “Do they take orders from you?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. Just wondering. D’you think they reach the top of that Gummi ship?”

Vanitas looks at the Unversed for a split second. With a flick of his wrist, the Unversed start moving, and soon enough they sit at the top of the ship, where Cid doesn’t reach without a ladder, and even then it is uncomfortable. Cid grins massively.

“Kid, you’re a genius. Say, how interested are you in workin’ here? You and your little friends can be of help.”

He blinks. “Of help? The Unversed?”

“Hey, I’m old. My back ain’t what it used to be. Those folks seem to be just fine.”

It seems like a foreign concept to him. Hell, maybe it is, he was just about to kill some parts of himself in front of Cid. He nods. “Yeah. Okay. I wouldn’t want your old back to break in half.”

“Watch who you call old!”

“You _just_ called yourself old!”

“But I’m me and you’re you. My workshop, my rules.”

“Whatever, old man.”

Cid bites back a smile.

Kids.

What a pain in the ass they were.

**Author's Note:**

> refs:
> 
> 1\. vanitas being up at ungodly hours: bbs novel chapter 1, vanitas says "I can go on a day or two without sleep. No problem." i left a note on this that says 'this is why you're in pain all the time dude'  
> 2\. vanitas constantly being in pain is ongoing in the series but, "Countless little aches harangued Vanitas' body."  
> 3\. vanitas: "It hurts. Ugh, I feel awful. I'm gonna throw up." and then he does in like. a bush. "Vanitas wrapped his arms around himself as an especially powerful spasm of pain assaulted him. The agony was choking him."  
> 4\. after ventus experiences aqua and terra taking care of him and laughing, he feels warm inside. and so does vanitas. in a different way. "However, instead of heating him up, it created an instant chill inside his heart. In fact, it left him colder than he'd been before."  
> vanitas makes me SAD !!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for reading
> 
> [tumblr](http://joshriku.tumblr.com/)   
>  [twitter](http://twitter.com/joshriku/)   
> 


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